This invention relates to a system for storing image information indicative of an object to be identified and for retrieving and verifying such stored information to enable one to obtain a reconstructed image of the object.
In particular, the invention relates to the digital processing of information indicative of the major recognizable features of an object such as the face of a person. This information is then digitized and stored. The technique utilizes a unique compression scheme which enables one to obtain an accurate representation of the face of a person or other object by accessing a critical identification area which is determined according to the characteristics of the particular object. Then by utilizing a high resolution processing sequence within the critical identification area, one is enabled to substantially and significantly reduce the total amount of storage required. Thus, a final representation of a pictorial view of a person's face can be digitally stored on storage mediums having very limited storage capacity such as a magnetic tape or other similar mediums which are associated with credit cards and so on.
Essentially, the prior art is replete with various systems which attempt to authenticate or provide visual data to enable the recognition and identification of persons or person's signatures. Typically, such systems employ the use of a computer and memory or other data processing systems to process various data which has been digitized and stored in a memory. The data indicative of the object is then retrieved and processed so that a visual indication of a signature or a person's face is presented as a display on a television monitor or other suitable display terminal. Such systems as indicated have been investigated in the prior art and there are many techniques associated with such systems which essentially involve compression of such data in order to accommodate limited storage space and to reduce the number of bytes necessary to provide an accurate visual representation of a person or a person's signature. Examples of such prior art may be had by referring to the following patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,718,908 to R. W. Bloomstein issued on Feb. 27, 1973 and is entitled Signature Storage and Retrieval System. This patent optically scans a signature which is then encoded by means of a digital encoder. The patent describes the use of a digital computer which stores digital information relating to the signature. The digital information can then be retrieved, decoded by means of a decoder and then displayed on a CRT screen such as a television monitor for comparison of the signature with the actual person's signature.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,463 to D. P. Hemel issued on Apr. 26, 1977 and entitled Apparatus and Method for Storage and Retrieval of Image Patterns. This patent shows a system whereby a signature or other image is optically scanned to generate digital signals for storage in a matrix. These signals represent black and white cells which define the line signature and are initially processed by tracing the image boundary. This processing, which is done electronically, thins or peels off the data by the use of an algorithm that evaluates black areas of the image matrix for conversion into white area digital signals. The patent employs a form of data compression and this compression continues until the line signature or line image is composed of a single area thickness.
Other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,958 to D. A. Domiki issued on July 18, 1978 entitled Terminal Display and Storage Medium. The patent relates to a system wherein a video camera scans an image which image is located within a particular area. The image is digitized and stored and then can be retrieved and displayed on a CRT or television monitor. The general nature of the system utilizes a data compression technique whereby only those relevant bits that relate to a given character serve to designate the number of spaces as recorded. Hence, the appropriate number of blanks are recorded as a single character formed which indicates a number of blanks thereby compressing character bits. After storage, the operator at the terminal can retrieve and display the signature or image that has been stored.
Other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,135 to H. D. Crane issued on Aug. 10, 1982 entitled Dynamic Creation of Signatures as well as U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,024 to K. Paetsch issued on Dec. 14, 1982 entitled Signature Presentation Method and Apparatus, involve typical systems.
Patents like the above also show systems which attempt to verify a signature by taking the requisite bits of a signature and so on, and utilizing various compression techniques, store such bits as digital data in a memory. The bits as stored are indicative of a signature or an image and are then retrieved and displayed on a cathode ray tube.
As one can ascertain, the above-noted patents are indicative of some of the type of prior art which attempt to verify a signature or the identity of a person by utilizing digital processing techniques to thereby store data in a memory which data is indicative of the image. This data can then be retrieved and displayed on a cathode ray tube or other display device to enable a party to either recognize or authenticate the signature or recognize or authenticate the person who is to be identified.
In any event, a significant problem which was encountered in such prior art systems is the ability to store the necessary amount of bits and to thus provide an accurate replica of the image to the identified. Briefly speaking, the prior art techniques did not lend themselves to enable one to use a relatively limited storage medium and to use such a medium to store enough digital data whereby the data as retrieved would enable one to make a positive identification of the person or object. As is well known, a typical credit card employing a magnetic stripe is a limited storage medium. Hence, in order to store data indicative of an accurate visual representation of a person's face the typical magnetic storage tape associated with a credit card does not accommodate the number of bits which were required by most prior art systems. In this manner, one could not store on a limited storage medium such as a magnetic strip or tap associated with a credit card the requisite number of bits to enable one to provide an accurate representation of a person's face or other complicated image. While prior art techniques recognize the need for data compression, such compression schemes do not lend themselves to use limited storage while providing an accurate representation of the object to be identified or authenticated.
Compression techniques that are presently used required that images be reconstructed or decompressed before transmission to the display device. Many such systems utilize a significantly wide transmission bandwidth and require a large amount of memory to accurately produce an image which image can be utilized to identity or otherwise authenticate the actual object. Essentially, present day compression techniques are utilized on textured images or images which have significant thickness to individual parts and with compression ratios in the range of 3 to 1 to 10 to 1, depending on the particular image or technique. There are many, many different techniques which involve compression of data which have been employed by the prior art to attempt to reduce the amount of storage necessary in order to provide an accurate representation of an image or an object which is to be authenticated.
It is also well known that a major use of accurate authentication in today's society involves the credit card industry. It is therefore apparent that it would be extremely desirable to enable one to store on a magnetic stripe associated with a credit card digital data which is indicative of the identity of the person to whom the card is assigned to. In this manner, one would desire to be able to store an accurate representation of the actual portrait of the person who owns the card to enable identification of that person at a remote terminal such as a bank terminal, a credit card terminal, or as a means for identifying a person for access to a secured premises.
Essentially, as one can ascertain, there are a multiplicity of uses for such a system whereby a video image or other representation of a person can be produced by means of a credit card carried by that person. The prior art was cognizant of the need for such a device and employed many different schemes such as holographic cards, digital cards with complicated data storage formats, cards employing microprocessing circuitry and individual memories and so on. In any event, it is indicated that based on such prior art techniques, there does not exist a system which is capable of storing on a conventional magnetic stripe of a conventional credit card digital data indicative of a accurate portrait or representation of a person to be authenticated or identified.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide apparatus and techniques for verifying the authenticity of an object using various limited storage mediums such as a magnetic stripe card similar to a credit card.
It is a further object of this system to provide a digital storage technique which employs compression to enable one to achieve an accurate representation of an object utilizing a minimum number of bits to thereby enable one to store accurate representations of the object in a minimum amount of space.